Why is rooibos tea good for you?

Do you have to drink rooibos tea hot in order to get all of the benefits?

• i like rooibos alot and i was thinking of making an iced tea out of it. but will i still get the calming effect and the lucid dreams it gives me? or do i have to drink it hot in order to get those. also what are all the benefits of rooibos?

• Answer:

  In general, the main difference between drinking any kind of herb tea hot vs. hold is that warm liquids relax the body, which can be beneficial, but in terms of any specific biological or medicinal properties of the infusion itself, this is unlikely to be changed by the temperature. I hadn't heard of the connection between rooibos and lucid dreaming, but I have researched the topic of rooibos before and it definitely has a number of health benefits and medicinal uses that have been confirmed, to some degree, by scientific study. If you want to see the article I put together, you'll find some interesting citations: http://ratetea.net/style/rooibos/9/ I found evidence that rooibos can act as a bronchodilator and thus potentially treat asthma or other breathing conditions. It also shows evidence of being able to protect against radiation poisoning. And it may protect against liver damage. However, most of this evidence is just from animal studies, so it's not clear which of these benefits would carry through to humans. I hope you find this helpful!